It is reported that police will soon have a new arm in their hand to catch crimes in the Bay - Facebook.

Western Bay officers will soon join up to the digital juggernaut Facebook. Police officers have reported to catch a spate of criminals through the social networking site in other parts of the country.

In addition, many criminals have been arrested by the police with the help of the information received following the landing of police appeals on their Facebook page. The arrests include one shoplifter, which was identified within
34 minutes of his image being uploaded on Facebook.

Besides, another case involves a man who stole a $500 green tiki and a man who stole Gran's Remedy. Both them were arrested using it.

"The fastest result was CCTV footage of a shoplifter in a chemist that was uploaded on to Facebook", explained the police annual report. "It took only 34 minutes for the out-of-towner to be correctly identified from the page".

An all together new Facebook page would soon be formed in a bid to assist the police to send messages to people over the summer such as messages relating to bans and on New Year celebrations.